A Missed Opportunity? The Daimler

Speaking of Daimler, another completely different Daimler is being sold elsewhere in the world. Specifically, what we know here in these United States as the Vanden Plas with its extra fine Connolly hides, Wilton carpets, and crenellated chrome grille and chrome trunk handle-trim, is actually known to much of the rest of the world as the Daimler Super Eight.

The first British Daimler was built in 1897, not long after Gottlieb Daimler produced the first horseless carriage in Germany. When the luxury marque joined Jaguar Cars, it remained a small side show production of Jaguar bodied sedans for decades.

The same case is still true today. The latest Jaguar XJ based Daimler Super Eight is being produced in small numbers and is retailing in the United Kingdom for £80,000 ($139,000).

However, I cannot help but think that the Ford and Jaguar executives missed a golden opportunity here.

The super-luxury segment consists today of three principal players: Bentley, Maybach, and Rolls-Royce. Up until the early 1990s, Daimler produced a large, stodgy, but opulent limousine that proved popular in the UK and elsewhere as being a chauffeured alternative to Rolls-Royce.

I am certain that with a marketing assault, and a realistic production figure of perhaps 1,500 cars per annum sold at roughly £150,000 ($261,000), a completely new (prettier) Daimler limo could have provided a luxurious rival to the Phantom.

Instead, the current Daimler Super Eight is merely a rebadged XJ. Daimler today suffers from what Bentley once did; being just a re-labled subsidiary with no distinctions. I surmise that Jaguar and Ford executives did not see the market for a new super limosine.

Still, the concept would be marketable and likely profitable in this climate of excess…

For more information on the Daimler, click: Daimler Cars